Location-based information service method and mobile terminal therefor

ABSTRACT

A location-based information service method for improving utilization of location-based information services and a mobile terminal for implementing the location-based information service method are provided. A method for providing an information service using a mobile terminal includes acquiring, at a mobile terminal, location information, determining an Internet Protocol (IP) address based on the location information, and receiving service information from a cyber space associated with a service provider that corresponds to the IP address.

PRIORITY

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of a Koreanpatent application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office onJan. 31, 2008 and assigned Serial No. 10-2008-0010255, the entiredisclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a location-based service. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to a location-based servicemethod and a mobile terminal for providing information services througha wireless connection to a cyber space of a service provider based onlocation information.

2. Description of the Related Art

With ongoing research and development, a mobile terminal is becoming amultifunctional device supporting various supplementary functions suchas a digital camera, an alarm, a Short Messaging Service (SMS), aMultimedia Message Service (MMS), E-mail, Bluetooth communication, etc.along with the mobile terminal's basic communication function. Inaddition, the convergence of supplementary functions is increasing.

Recently, a Global Positioning System (GPS) is frequently used forproviding users with practical services. A Location-Based Service (LBS)is a well-know technology for providing users with services based ontheir geographical locations.

Conventionally, the location based services are characterized in thatthe location information acquired by a mobile terminal is provided to aspecific application installed in one of the mobile terminal and aremote server connected through one of a WEB and a Wireless ApplicationProtocol (WAP) for producing useful information.

For instance, when the mobile terminal is equipped with a GPS receiverand a camera module, the mobile terminal can store a photograph taken bythe camera module with the time and location where the photograph wastaken, based on the mobile terminal's time and location informationdetermined by the GPS receiver. Another example is a subway mapapplication, which compares the location information acquired by themobile terminal in real time with a predefined subway map data toidentify the current location.

However, most of the conventional location-based services are limited intheir ability to provide detailed and accurate information to satisfythe users' requirements. That is, the conventional location-basedservices provide the users with location information processed from thecoordinates acquired by the mobile terminal. Accordingly, there has beena need to develop a system and method for providing the users withimproved location-based services that can meet users' variousrequirements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the present invention is to address at least theabove-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at leastthe advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the presentinvention is to provide an information service method that is capable ofproviding a mobile terminal with an information service provided by aservice provider's cyber space via one of a WEB and a WirelessApplication Protocol (WAP) using location information.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a location-basedinformation service method that is capable of providing an informationservice to a mobile terminal by matching current location informationwith an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a service provider andenabling the mobile terminal to access a cyber space represented by theservice provider's IP address.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a location-basedinformation service method that enables a mobile terminal to convertcurrent location information into an IP address and access a cyber spacerepresented by the IP address automatically.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a location-basedinformation service method that enables a mobile terminal to access acyber space of a service provider of which an IP address is mapped tothe mobile terminal's current location and to receive serviceinformation provided by the service provider in real time.

Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide alocation-based information service method that is capable of allocatingspatial coordinates to service providers and providing provider-specificservice information to mobile terminals located at the spatialcoordinates occupied by the service providers.

Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide alocation-based information service method that is capable of providingmobile terminals located at spatial coordinates occupied by a serviceprovider with service information of the service provider first.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method forproviding an information service using a mobile terminal is provided.The method includes acquiring, at a mobile terminal, locationinformation, determining an IP address based on the locationinformation, and receiving service information from a cyber spaceassociated with a service provider that corresponds to the IP address.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method forproviding an information service using a mobile terminal is provided.The method includes extracting, when an information service function ofa mobile terminal is activated, at least one coordinate from locationinformation, searching for reference location information correspondingto the at least one coordinate from a mapping table, retrieving linkinformation mapped to the reference location information from themapping table, and accessing a cyber space of a service providerautomatically using the link information.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method forproviding an information service using a mobile terminal is provided.The method includes sending at least one coordinate of locationinformation acquired at a location of a mobile terminal from the mobileterminal to a service server, receiving an IP address mapped to the atleast one coordinate from the service server, and accessing a cyberspace of a service provider corresponding to the IP address.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a mobileterminal is provided. The terminal includes a location informationreception unit for receiving location information of the mobile terminalfrom a positioning system, an input unit for receiving a control commandto execute an information service function, a memory unit for storing atleast one of applications and data associated with the informationservice function, location information, reference location information,and link information matched with the reference location information, adisplay unit for displaying service information provided from a cyberspace, and a control unit for obtaining, when a function executionrequest is detected, the link information mapped to the locationinformation and for accessing the cyber space of a service providercorresponding to the location information.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system forproviding an information service based on location information isprovided. The system includes a mobile terminal for accessing a cyberspace corresponding to a location of the mobile terminal, a serviceserver for allocating at least one spatial coordinate per cyber spaceand for mapping the at least one spatial coordinate into an IP address,and at least one service provider for allocating the at least onespatial coordinate and for providing service information to the mobileterminal at the at least one spatial coordinate through the cyber space.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings,discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of certainexemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparentfrom the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1 a to 1 d are schematic diagrams illustrating a location-basedservice system according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobileterminal for supporting a location-based service method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a location-based service methodaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a location-based service methodaccording to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing location-basedservice according to another exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is a signaling diagram illustrating a spatial coordinateallocation procedure of a location-based service method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a signaling diagram illustrating an information serviceprovision procedure of the location-based service method according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a signaling diagram illustrating an information serviceprovision procedure of the location-based service method according toanother exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbersare used to depict the same or similar elements, features andstructures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings isprovided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplaryembodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and theirequivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in thatunderstanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatvarious changes and modifications of the embodiments described hereincan be made without departing from the scope and spirit of theinvention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions andconstructions are omitted clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are notlimited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by theinventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of theinvention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in theart that the following description of exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not forthe purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claimsand their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes referenceto one or more of such surfaces.

In the following description, a mobile terminal connects to a cyberspace, such as a website, using location information including latitude,longitude, and altitude of the mobile terminal to provide a user of themobile terminal with various value added services. More particularly,the mobile terminal converts its location information into a serviceprovider's Internet Protocol (IP) address and accesses the websiteidentified by the IP address, thereby intuitively providing the userwith useful information in real time.

The service provider can be any of a shopping center, a hotel, adepartment store, a theater, a restaurant, a hospital, a café, a publicoffice, etc. and may provide information through its own cyber space. Asaforementioned, the location information is the spatial coordinatecomposed of at least one of latitude value, longitude value, andaltitude value that indicates the location of the mobile terminal. Thelocation of the mobile terminal may be acquired by means of a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) or the like.

In the following description, the term “spatial coordinate” isinterchangeably used with the terms “coordinate” and “locationinformation.” In addition, a service server is one of service serversallocated a unique spatial coordinate for providing location-basedinformation services. The location-based information service systemarchitecture is described in detail hereinafter with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1 a to 1 d are schematic diagrams illustrating a location-basedinformation service system according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention. More particularly, FIG. 1 a illustrates a conceptualarchitecture of a location-based information service system according toan exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 1 b to 1 dillustrate operations of the location-based information service system.

When a user activates a location-based information service function at aspecific location represented by a spatial coordinate, the mobileterminal attempts Internet access to a cyber space of a service providerallocated the spatial coordinate. The access to the cyber space isperformed by using an IP address matched with the spatial coordinate.The cyber space access operation is described hereinafter.

Referring to FIG. 1 a, the mobile terminal acquires location informationof its position and attempts to access the cyber space of a serviceprovider with reference to the location information.

Once the location-based information service function is activated, themobile terminal acquires its location information by means of its GPSreceiver. The location information includes at least one of a latitudevalue, a longitude value, and an altitude value.

For example, the mobile terminal converts a spatial coordinate includinga north latitude (37° 33″ 49′) and an east longitude 126° 59″ 50′)acquired by the GPS receiver into an IP address “123.123.123.123”represented by a service provider's domain of http://www.samsung.com.

Next, the mobile terminal accesses the service provider's domain IPaddress and outputs the information provided by the service provider.Here, the spatial coordinate may further include an altitude value. In acase where multiple service providers are placed in a building, theservice provider can be identified with reference to the altitude valueas well as the latitude and longitude values.

Referring to FIG. 1 a, it is assumed that the specific shopping center,as a service provider, is matched with the location information. In thiscase, the mobile terminal accesses the cyber space of the shoppingcenter and outputs information on the services provided by the shoppingcenter. If the location information is matched with a restaurant as theservice provider, then the mobile terminal accesses the cyber space ofthe restaurant to receive information associated with the restaurant,such as at least one of a menu, customers' opinions, a map, anadvertisement, a discount, and a coupon.

FIGS. 1 b to 1 d provide examples of how a mobile terminal may accessthe cyber spaces of service providers based on the locations informationacquired in substantially real time.

FIG. 1 b illustrates an exemplary situation in which the location-basedinformation service function is activated such that the mobile terminalaccesses the cyber space of a first shopping center occupying thespatial coordinate of the mobile terminal's location.

FIG. 1 c illustrates an exemplary situation in which the location-basedfunction is activated such that the mobile terminal accesses the cyberspace of a second shopping center occupying the spatial coordinate ofthe mobile terminal's location.

FIG. 1 d illustrates an exemplary situation in which the mobile terminalaccesses the cyber space of the first shopping center, even though thespatial coordinate of the mobile terminal is geographically occupied bythe second shopping center.

When the first shopping center occupies the coordinate of the secondshopping center, the mobile terminal accesses the cyber space of thefirst shopping center although it is located near the second shoppingcenter. This means that the greater the number of coordinates theservice provider occupies, the greater the number of opportunities ishas for advertisements.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobileterminal for supporting a location-based information service methodaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, a mobile terminal 200 includes a Radio Frequency(RF) unit 210, a location information reception unit 220, an audioprocessing unit 230, an input unit 240, a memory unit 250, a displayunit 260, and a control unit 270.

The RF unit 210 is responsible for radio communication of the mobileterminal 200. The RF unit 210 establishes radio channels with an accessnetwork for voice and data communication. The RF unit 210 includes an RFtransmitter for up-converting and amplifying transmission signalfrequency and an RF receiver for low noise amplifying anddown-converting received signal frequency. More particularly, in anexemplary embodiment, the RF unit 210 is configured such that the mobileterminal 200 can access a cyber space under the control of the controlunit 270.

The location information reception unit 220 receives locationinformation from a positioning system. The positioning system can be aGPS, and the location information can be a spatial coordinate composedof at least one of a latitude value, a longitude value, and an altitudevalue. Although the location-based information service method isdescribed with a mobile terminal 200 equipped with a GPS receiver as thelocation information reception unit 220, the present invention is notlimited thereto. For example, the mobile terminal 200 can receive itslocation from a Base Station (BS) serving the mobile terminal 200. Inaddition, the mobile terminal 200 can acquire its location informationin other various manners.

The audio processing unit 230 converts an analog voice signal inputthrough a microphone (MIC) into a digital voice signal and converts adigital voice signal into an analog voice signal to be output through aspeaker (SPK). More particularly, in an exemplary embodiment, the audioprocessing unit 230 is configured to process an audio signal receivedfrom a cyber space to which the mobile terminal 200 is connected.

The input unit 240 is provided with a plurality of alphanumeric keys forreceiving alphanumeric data and function keys for configuring andexecuting various functions of the mobile terminal 200 and transfers thekey signal generated by the manipulation of the keys to the control unit270. The input unit 240 may further include separately implementedfunctions keys such as navigation keys, volume keys, and hot keys. Moreparticularly, in an exemplary embodiment, the input unit 240 may includean execution command module 245 for transferring a control signal inputin association with the location-based information service function tothe control unit 270. The execution command module 245 may beimplemented with the function keys so as to transfer a control signalinput through one of the function keys to the control unit 270.

The memory unit 250 stores applications associated with thelocation-based information service function, application data generatedby the applications and user data input by the user. The memory unit 250can be provided with at least one buffer for buffering data generated bythe applications.

The applications include at least one of an activation/deactivationprocessing application, an information conversion application forconverting the location information into an IP address, a transportapplication for transporting the location information (spatialcoordinate) to a service server, an access application for accessing acyber space represented by the IP address, an update application forupdating the information of the mobile terminal 200 with the spatialcoordinate and IP address, and an output application for outputting aprocessed result of a predefined supplementary service.

The memory unit 250 includes a location information storage region 251for storing the acquired or preset location information (spatialcoordinate), a link information storage region 253 for storing the linkinformation associated with location information, and a mapping tablestorage region 255 for storing the mapping table containing a mapbetween the location information and the link information. Table 1 showsan exemplary mapping table.

TABLE 1 Location information Link information Supplementary informationFirst coordinate http://www.abcd.com ◯◯◯ shopping center Secondcoordinate ◯◯ department store ◯◯ department store Third coordinatehttp://www.efgh.com ◯◯◯ restaurant Fourth coordinate 123.123.123.123 ◯◯◯department store

As aforementioned, the location information, i.e. each of the first tofourth coordinates, is composed of at least one of a latitude value, alongitude value, and an altitude value for indicating a specificgeographical position. in addition, a coordinate may be replaced by aset of spatial coordinates for defining a specific space.

The link information can be provided in the form of at least one of aUniform Resource Locator (URL), a service provider's name, a domainname, and an IP address representing the service provider.

The supplementary information may include the information such as theservice provider's business name to help the users recognize thebusiness category of service provider.

Once the location information is acquired, the mobile terminal 200 looksup the mapping table to retrieve the location information and attemptsto access the service provider's cyber space, i.e. the URL or IPaddress, mapped to the location information.

The mapping table may be stored during the manufacturing stage of themobile terminal 200 with default values and updated with the informationdownloaded from a specific service server. The mapping table may beprovided so as to be edited by the user. That is, the user may add newprovider's information and may modify the preset information.

The display unit 260 displays visual data provided by the applications,user data input through key manipulation, and operational status of themobile terminal 200. More particularly in an exemplary embodiment, thedisplay unit 260 provides a User Interface (UI) screen associated withthe access to the service provider's cyber space. The visual datadisplayed on the UI screen can present various service informationprovided in the cyber space. The UI screen can be implemented with theinformation tables as exemplified in FIGS. 1 a to 1 d.

The control unit 270 controls general operations of the mobile terminal200 and signaling among internal elements. That is, the control unit 270controls among the RF unit 210, location information reception unit 220,audio processing unit 230, input unit 240, memory unit 250, and display260. The control unit 270 may include a data processing module includinga codec and a modem.

More particularly, in this exemplary embodiment, the control unit 270detects a location-based information service function execution commandand performs access to a cyber space represented by an IP address mappedto the location information (spatial coordinate) acquired at thelocation where the location-based information service function executioncommand is input.

As aforementioned, the location-based function execution command isgenerated by the user's manipulation on the input unit 240. In addition,the mobile terminal 200 can be configured such that the location-basedfunction is automatically activated when the mobile terminal 200 ispositioned at a location represented by a specific spatial coordinate.Once the mobile terminal 200 is connected to the cyber space, itreceives the information provided by the service provider operating thecyber space, such as advertisement information, discount information,menu information, geographical information, and coupon information in aformat appropriate for the user interface of the mobile terminal 200.

The control unit 270 includes a function activator 271, a locationinformation processor 273, a service access manager 275, and a serviceorganizer 277 to control the location-based information servicefunction.

The function activator 271 controls activation of the location-basedinformation service function. In more detail, the function activator 271converts the location information acquired in response to thelocation-based information service function activation command into anIP address, sends the location information to the service server, andcontrols access to the cyber space. The function activator 271 cancontrol such that, when the mobile terminal 200 is located at a placerepresented by a specific coordinate, the location-based informationservice function is activated. The function activator 271 also controlsthe deactivation of the location-based information service functionaccording to a user's configuration.

When the location-based information service function is activated, thelocation information processor 273 acquires the coordinates of thelocation of the mobile terminal 200 and converts the coordinates into anIP address. The location information conversion is performed withreference to the mapping table as shown in Table 1. When the mobileterminal 200 executes the location-based information service function inassociation with the service server, the location information processor273 sends the coordinates acquired by the location information receptionunit 220 to the service server and receives an IP address mapped to thecoordinates from the service server.

The service access manager 275 controls access to the cyber spacerepresented by the IP address corresponding to the location information.The service access manager 275 also controls access to the serviceserver. The service access manager 275 attempts to access the cyberspace or the service server by means of one of the RF unit 210 and aseparate IP communication module.

The service organizer 277 organizes information provided through thecyber space in the format appropriate for the user interface. Theservice organizer 277 can organize and provide a location-basedinformation service screen in various service modes and individualmode-specific service information.

Although the mobile terminal 200 is depicted with basic internalelements in FIG. 2, the configuration of the mobile terminal 200 is notlimited thereto. For example, the mobile terminal 200 may furtherinclude at least one of a short range communication module, an electrictransaction module, a digital broadcast reception module, an internetaccess module, a battery module, etc. In addition, internal elements ofthe mobile terminal 200 may be removed or replaced with other elements.

Until now, the structures and functions of the internal elements of themobile terminal 200 have been described. The operations of the abovestructured mobile terminal 200 are described hereinafter in associationwith the location-based information service. Although the location-basedinformation service method is described with reference to an exemplaryembodiment, the present invention is not limited to the followingembodiments and various equivalents and modifications can be made to theexemplary embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a location-based information servicemethod according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 a to 1 d, 2 and 3, once the control unit 270detects a location-based information service request event in step S301,the control unit 270 acquires the location of the mobile terminal 200using a coordinate received by the location information reception unit220 in step S303.

The control unit 270 determines link information corresponding to theacquired location information in step S305. At this time, the controlunit 270 compares the acquired location information with reference to atleast one location information stored in the memory unit 250 todetermine whether identical reference location information exists. Ifthe identical location information exists, the control unit 270 attemptsto extract the link information mapped to the location information.Extracting the link information may further include determining whetherthe reference location information has link information mapped theretoin step S307. The link information extraction procedure is described inmore detail further below with reference to FIG. 4.

If there is link information mapped to the location information at stepS307, the control unit 270 controls to access a cyber space representedby the link information in step S309. That is, the control unit 270controls such that the mobile terminal 200 accesses a web server byproviding the service provider's cyber space address corresponding tothe location information.

Once the mobile terminal 200 is connected to the web server, the controlunit 270 controls such that the information associated with variousservices provided via the cyber space is displayed on the display unit260 in step S311. For instance, if the cyber space is of a specificdepartment store, then the control unit 270 controls such that themobile terminal 200 accesses the department store's cyber space withreference to the link information and outputs the information providedby the department store as the service provider. The information can beprovided in the form of provider-specific service information includingat least one of advertisement information, discount information, couponinformation, shopping information, cultural information and the like.

If there is no link information mapped to the location information atstep S307, the control unit 270 determines whether a link informationsetting request is input in step S313. If a link information settingrequest is input, then the control unit 270 updates the mapping tablewith the link information corresponding to the acquired locationinformation and/or the reference location information in step S315 andexecutes an operation following the mapping table update in step S317.The operation following the mapping table update can be an access to thecyber space based on the updated link information or a location-basedinformation service termination as a preset operation or in response tothe user's request. The link information update procedure is describedin more detail below with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a location-based information servicemethod according to another exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 a to 1 d, 2 and 4, the control unit 270 firstacquires the location information by means of the location informationreception unit 220 in step S401 and extracts at least one coordinatefrom the location information in step S403. Next, the control unit 270looks up a mapping table to retrieve the corresponding referencelocation information in step S405 and determines whether the referencelocation information exists in the mapping table in step S407.

The at least one coordinate of the acquired location informationincludes at least one of latitude, longitude, and altitude values, andthe control unit 270 retrieves the reference location information basedon the at least one coordinate. The reference location information mayinclude a coordinate, a set of coordinates, a range coordinate defininga specific geographical area, or any combination thereof.

If the reference location information exists, the control unit 270extracts the link information mapped to the reference locationinformation. In more detail, the control unit 270 searches for the linkinformation corresponding to the reference location information in themapping table in step S409 and determines whether link informationmapped to the reference location information exists in step S411.

If there is not reference location information identical with theacquired location information, the control unit 270 determines if alocation information registration request is input in step S421. If alocation information registration request is input, the control unit 270updates the mapping table with the acquired location information in stepS423.

The location information request can be generated according to at leastone of a preset configuration and a user input.

In a case where the mobile terminal 200 is configured to generate thelocation information request automatically, the control unit 270recognizes that there is no reference location information correspondingto the location information and outputs a message asking for the user toregister the location such that the user can register the location usingthe acquired location information.

In addition, the mobile terminal 200 can be configured such that, whenit is determined that no reference location information corresponds tothe acquired location information, the control unit 270 registers theacquired location information automatically. In this case, the controlunit 220 updates the mapping table by adding the acquired locationinformation to the mapping table and maps the location information tolink information. The link information can be at least one of input bythe user and downloaded from a service server.

If the link information mapped to the reference location informationexists at step S411, then the control unit 270 converts the coordinateincluded in the link information into an IP address in step S413. Thatis, the control unit 270 acquires the IP address of the serviceprovider's cyber space from the location information. Next, the controlunit 270 establishes a connection to the cyber space by means of the IPaddress in step S415.

If there is no link information mapped to the reference locationinformation at step S411, the control unit 270 outputs an alarm messageasking for updated the link information in step S431. The alarm messageasks the user to set the link information corresponding to the acquiredlocation information.

Next, the control unit 270 determines whether a link information updaterequest is input in response to the alarm message in step S433. The linkinformation update request can be generated by at least one of theuser's key manipulation and a preset automatic update process.

If a link information update request is detected, the control unit 270determines whether the link information update request is input by theuser in step S435. That is, the control unit 270 determines whether thelink information update request is generated by the user's mapping tableediting or the automatic link information download.

If it is determined that the link information update request isgenerated by the user, then the control unit 270 modifies the linkinformation in response to the user request in step S437 and updates themapping table with the modified link information in step S439.

Otherwise, if it is determined that the link information update requestis generated by the automatic update process, the control unit 270controls the mobile terminal 200 to access a specific service server instep S441 and downloads the link information corresponding to thelocation information or the whole set of the link information providedby the service server in step S443. The specific service server may bean information server for proving the location information (spatialcoordinates) and link information (IP address) per location informationsuch that the mobile terminal 200 can download the link informationcorresponding to the acquired location information or the entirelocation and link information provided by the information server. Thecontrol unit 270 updates the mapping table with reference to theinformation downloaded from the server in step S445.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing location-basedinformation service according to another exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 a to 1 d, 2 and 5, once the control unit 270detects a function execution request in step S501, the control unit 270checks a service mode of the function in step S503.

If the service mode is a normal mode, the control unit 270 acquiresinformation on the location of the mobile terminal 200 in the abovedescribed manner in step S505 and outputs the information related to thelocation in step S507. The related information may include serviceinformation of a cyber space to connect by means of the locationinformation.

If the service mode is a favorite information mode at step S503, thecontrol unit 270 acquires information on the location of the mobileterminal 200 in the above described manner in step S515 and outputsmapping information corresponding to the location information in stepS517. The mapping information may include the service information of thecyber space accessible with the location information and user preferredservice information set by the user. The user preferred serviceinformation includes the frequently positioned location information,i.e. the information of other service providers that are referred by theuser at the location. The mobile terminal 200 is configured to outputthe information about the service provider associated with the linkinformation and user preferred information set by the user in thefavorite information mode.

If the service mode is a conditional mode at step S503, the control unit270 acquires information on the location of the mobile terminal 200 inthe above described manner in step S525 and determines the conditionsassociated with the location information in step S527. Next, the controlunit 270 outputs spatial information satisfying the conditions in stepS529. The spatial information may include information on anotherlocation corresponding to the location.

In the conditional mode, the control unit 270 controls such that theservice information of the cyber space is output together with spatialinformation satisfying the conditions. For instance, if the locationinformation indicates an area A (e.g. Gangnam Station), the spatialinformation on area A may include the service information about an areaB (e.g. Sinchon Station) and an area D (e.g. Apgujeong Station) asrelated information.

If the service mode is a local mode at step S503, the control unit 270acquires information on the location of the mobile terminal 200 in theabove described manner in step S535 and extracts location informationabout the corresponding area from the location information in step S537.Next, the control unit 270 outputs the local information correspondingto the location information in step S539.

The local information includes service information associated with thelocation information such as an address of the location and nearbypublic offices and a fire house. The local information can be theinformation at least one of linked to the location information stored inthe memory unit and downloaded from a specific service server providinglocation information.

Until now, the location-based information service function is describedin view of the mobile terminal 200. A technique in which the spatialcoordinates are allocated to the service providers and a technique inwhich the location-based information service is provided are describedin view of the service server. However, the present invention is notlimited to the exemplary embodiments described hereinafter.

FIG. 6 is a signaling diagram illustrating a spatial coordinateallocation procedure of a location-based information service methodaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the system includes a service server 610 whichallocates spatial coordinates to service providers and provides mobileterminals location information (spatial coordinates) and linkinformation (IP addresses), and first to third service providers 631,633, and 635 that request from the service server 610 the spatialcoordinates and provides the mobile terminals with information servicesat their locations represented by the spatial coordinates.

The service server 610 regards the spatial coordinates as resources andallocates the usage rights on the coordinate resources to the mainproviders 631, 633, and 635 as pay resources. In this case, theproviders 631, 633, and 635 may compete to preoccupy the coordinateresources distributed over their shopping centers for spatialcoordinate-based target marketing with spot advertisement.

When a plurality of sub-providers are located in a building (e.g. ashopping center complex), there can be a main provider for managing thecoordinate resources. In this case, the main providers compete to occupythe coordinate resources at and around their shopping centers and lendthe coordinate resources to the sub-providers differentially such that,when a mobile terminal is located at a specific position represented bythe spatial coordinate owned by a sub-provider, the sub-providersinformation is output with the main provider's information on the mobileterminal.

For example, when a restaurant is located on a specific floor of theshopping center building and a user carrying the mobile terminal movesto the specific floor, the mobile terminal may receive the serviceinformation of the shopping center as the main information and theservice information of the restaurant as the sub information. Theservice information of the shopping center as the main information andthe service information of the restaurant as the sub information may besimultaneously received.

It is possible to provide the service information of multiplesub-providers located on the same floor, which may occur simultaneously.In addition, the sub-providers may compete to occupy the coordinateresources. In this case, the service information of the sub-providerthat occupies the spatial coordinate can be provided as the primaryinformation.

Accordingly, the owner of the mobile terminal can obtainposition-adaptive information while moving around the shopping center.

Referring to FIG. 6, the service server 610 first acquires and managesthe spatial coordinates in step S601. The first, second and thirdproviders 631, 633, and 635 send a coordinate resource allocationrequest to the service server 610 for preoccupying their preferredcoordinate resources in steps S603, S605, and S607.

Upon receipt of the coordinate resource allocation requests, the serviceserver 610 determines the requested coordinate resources for theproviders 631, 633, and 635 in step S609 and allocates the coordinateresources to the providers 631, 633, and 635 in steps S611, S613, andS615. The allocation of the coordinate resources in step S609 may be ina first come first served order. Finally, the service server 610 mapsthe spatial coordinates to the IP addresses of the respective providers631, 633, and 635 in step S617.

Once the coordinates are mapped to the IP addresses of the serviceproviders 631, 633, and 635, the service server 610 can inform themobile terminal located at at least one specific coordinate of the IPaddress of the service provider allocated the at least one coordinate. Atechnique for providing the location-based information service to themobile terminals in the system, in which the service server allocatesthe coordinate resources to the service providers and maps thecoordinates to the IP addresses of the service providers, is describedhereinafter.

FIG. 7 is a signaling diagram illustrating an information serviceprovision procedure of the location-based information service methodaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.7, a mobile terminal 710 converts at least one coordinate of itslocation into an IP address and accesses the cyber space represented bythe IP address.

Referring to FIG. 7, once a location-based information service functionis activated in step S701, the mobile terminal 710 acquires its locationin the above described manner in step S703.

Next, the mobile terminal 710 retrieves the IP address mapped to thecoordinate representing its location in step S705. After retrieval ofthe IP address, the mobile terminal 710 accesses the cyber space of aservice provider (e.g. second provider 753) represented by the IPaddress in step S707 and receives an information service provided by thesecond provider 753 in step S709. In this exemplary embodiment, it isassumed that there are three service providers 751, 753, and 755.

When the mobile terminal 710 fails retrieving the IP address of thesecond provider 753, the mobile terminal 710 sends at least onecoordinate of its location to a service server 730 in step S721.

Upon receipt of the at least one coordinate of the mobile terminal 710,the service server 730 searches for a provider allocated the at leastone coordinate in step S723. If the provider allocated the at least onecoordinate is found, the service server 730 sends the IP address of thefound service provider (i.e. the second provider 753) in step S725 andsends the IP address to the mobile terminal 710 in step S727.

Upon receipt of the IP address of the second provider, the mobileterminal 710 updates its mapping table with the IP address in step S729.Next, the mobile terminal 710 accesses the cyber space of the secondprovider 753 represented by the IP address in step S731 and receives theinformation service provided by the second provider 753 in step S733.

FIG. 8 is a signaling diagram illustrating an information serviceprovision procedure of the location-based information service methodaccording to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 8, a mobile terminal 810 receives an IP address mapped to at leastone coordinate representing the mobile terminal's 810 location andaccesses the cyber space by means of the IP address.

Referring to FIG. 8, once a location-based information service functionis activated in step S801, the mobile terminal 810 acquires its locationin the above described manner in step S803.

Next, the mobile terminal 810 sends its location to a service server 830in step S805. Upon receipt of the location information of the mobileterminal 810, the service server 830 searches for a service providermatched with at least one coordinate indicating the location of themobile terminal 810 in step S807. In this exemplary embodiment, it isassumed that there are three service providers 851, 853, and 855, andthe found service provider is the second provider 853.

Next, the service server 830 retrieves the IP address allocated to thesecond service provider 853 in step S809 and sends the IP address of thesecond service provider 853 to the mobile terminal 810 in step S811.

Upon receipt of the IP address of the second service provider 853, themobile terminal 810 accesses the cyber space of the second provider 853by means of the IP address in step S813 and receives the informationservice provided by the second provider 853 in step S815.

As described above, the location-based information service method and amobile terminal for implementing the method according to exemplaryembodiments of the present invention enables accessing a cyber space ofa service provider of which an IP address is mapped to at least onecoordinate of the mobile terminal's location, whereby the owner of themobile terminal can obtain the information provided by the serviceprovider occupying the at lest one coordinate. In addition, thelocation-based information service method of exemplary embodiments thepresent invention enables the mobile terminal to access a cyber space ofa service provider automatically and receive service informationprovided by the service provider when the mobile terminal is located atat least one coordinate allocated to the service provider. Thelocation-based information service method of exemplary embodiments thepresent invention enables mapping spatial coordinates to IP addressesallocated to service providers, thereby providing subscribers withambient information and expanding an applicability of spatialcoordinate-based information services in various business models.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference tocertain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing an information serviceusing a mobile terminal, the method comprising: acquiring, at a mobileterminal, location information of the mobile terminal in response to aninformation service request; determining whether a link informationcorresponding to the acquired location information exists; accessing acyber space with reference to the link information when the linkinformation exists; outputting service information provided by a serviceprovider that is associated with the cyber space; determining whether alink information setting request is input, when the link informationdoes not exist; and updating the link information corresponding to theacquired location information in response to the link informationsetting request.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the link informationcomprises a form of at least one of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), aservice provider's name, a domain name, and an Internet Protocol (IP)address representing the service provider.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the determining of whether the link information corresponding tothe acquired location information exists comprises outputting, whenthere is no reference location information identical with the locationinformation, a link information update alert.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the updating of the link information comprises at least one ofcorrecting the link information in response to a user input anddownloading new link information from a server.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the link information are mapped to predefined linkinformation within a mapping table.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinthe accessing of the cyber space with reference to the link informationcomprises: if the link information mapped to the predefined linkinformation exists, acquiring an IP address of the service provider'scyber space from the link information mapped to the reference locationinformation; and automatically connecting to the cyber space of theservice provider using the IP address of the service provider's cyberspace.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reference locationinformation comprises at least one of a coordinate, a set ofcoordinates, and a coordinate range.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinthe service information comprises information on the service provider ofthe cyber space that is processed in a predefined service mode of themobile terminal, and wherein the predefined service mode comprises oneof a normal mode, a favorite mode, a conditional mode, and a local mode.9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: if the service mode is thenormal mode, outputting information related to the acquired locationinformation; if the service mode is the favorite mode, outputting amapping information corresponding to the acquired location information;if the service mode is the conditional mode, determining the conditionsassociated with the acquired location information and outputting spatialinformation satisfying the conditions; and if the service mode is thelocal mode, extracting local information about a corresponding area fromthe acquire location information and outputting the local informationcorresponding to the acquired location information.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the determining whether the link informationcorresponding to the acquired location information exists comprises:searching for reference location information corresponding to acoordinate of the acquired location information from a mapping tablestored on the mobile terminal; and retrieving link information mapped tothe reference location information from the mapping table.
 11. A mobileterminal comprising: a location information reception unit for receivinga coordinate corresponding to a current location of the mobile terminalfrom a positioning system; an input unit for receiving a control commandto execute an information service function; a memory unit for storing amapping table that includes reference location information and linkinformation matched with the reference location information; a displayunit for displaying service information provided from a cyber space; anda control unit for acquiring, when the information service functionexecution request is detected, location information of the mobileterminal using the coordinate received by the location informationreception unit, for determining whether a link information correspondingto the acquire location information exists, for accessing, when the linkinformation exists, a cyber space with reference to the linkinformation, for outputting service information provided by a serviceprovider that is associated with the cyber space, and for updating, whenthe link information does not exist, the link information correspondingto the acquired location information in response to a link informationsetting request.
 12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein thecontrol unit comprises: a function activator for activating theinformation service function to generate the IP address based on thelocation information in response to the function execution request, forsending the location information to a service server, and forestablishing a connection to the cyber space; a location informationprocessor for acquiring the at least one spatial coordinate of thelocation of the mobile terminal by using the location informationreception unit and for the generating of the IP address based on thelink information; and a service access manager for managing access thecyber space corresponding to the IP address and the service server. 13.The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the control unit furthercomprises a service organizer for configuring the service informationprovided by the service server appropriate for a user interface and aservice of the of the information service function, and wherein theservice mode comprises one of a normal mode, a favorite mode, aconditional mode, and a local mode.
 14. The mobile terminal of claim 13,wherein the control unit is for performing at least one of: outputtinginformation related to the acquired location information in the normalmode; outputting mapping information corresponding to the acquiredlocation information in the favorite mode; determining conditionsassociated with the acquired location information and outputting spatialinformation satisfying the conditions in the conditional mode; andextracting local information about a corresponding area from theacquired location information and outputting the local informationcorresponding to the acquired location information in the local mode.15. The mobile terminal of claim 13, wherein the service informationcomprises service provider information and service provider's servicesthat are reorganized according to the service mode.
 16. The mobileterminal of claim 11, wherein the memory unit comprises: a locationinformation region for storing location information and referencelocation information; a link information region for storing the linkinformation mapped to the reference location information; and a mappingtable region for storing the mapping table used to map the linkinformation to the reference location information.
 17. The mobileterminal of claim 16, wherein the mapping table comprises: a locationinformation field for recording coordinates, each having a latitudevalue and a longitude value; and a link information field for recordingInternet Protocol (IP) addresses mapped to the coordinates.
 18. Themobile terminal of claim 17, wherein the location information comprisesat least one of a coordinate, a set of coordinates, and a coordinaterange.
 19. The mobile terminal of claim 17, wherein the mapping table isupdated with at least one of information input by user and downloadedfrom the service server.
 20. The mobile terminal of claim 11, whereinthe control unit is for performing searching for reference locationinformation corresponding to the coordinate of the acquired locationinformation from the mapping tables stored on the memory unit, and isfor retrieving the link information mapped to the reference locationinformation from the mapping table.
 21. The mobile terminal of claim 11,wherein the control unit is for performing acquiring, when the linkinformation mapped to the reference location information exists, anInternet Protocol (IP) address of the service provider's cyber spacefrom the link information mapped to the reference location information,and is for automatically connecting to the cyber space of the serviceprovider using the IP address.